One of the very important things that I am doing along the way in my “Journey To Scratch” adventure is making sure I set some goals for each round. Every time I hit the course, I need to try and get a bit better at something. From lowering my total number of putts to hitting more greens, trying to set a loftier goal for my next round is part of building a stronger game. For example, before my 74 on the 21st of August, I was able to setup a few goals using my round from August 7th. These goals included hitting 70% of my fairways, 70% of my greens and having a much better conversion rate on chips (75% on that round.) After playing my round on the 21st, I was able to nail down almost all three of them in one fell swoop, but I just missed the fairways goal.
GOALS FOR THE AUGUST 21ST ROUND
Hit 70% of the fairways – 8/14 (57%)
Hit 70% of the greens – 15/18 (83%)
Hit 75% in chipping up & down percentage – 0/0 (100%)
While those numbers may look great, my total putts soared up to 35, which is probably due to the fact that I didn’t have any close missed greens that allowed me to sneak in a few one putts. The bad part is, I had 2 one putts on the front side and another on the back. That’s three one putts (all on par 3’s) that should have brought me down to 30-32 putts. Rolling in more of the 15-20 foot putts will be key to getting the scores down in to the upper 60’s where I need to be, so that will be one of my goals. Also, I need to eliminate the “right” drives. I had 5 drives miss the fairway right in the last round. Now, honestly, they didn’t miss by much. 6 and 15 were the exceptions for the day, but 10, 11 and 14 weren’t more than a few yards offline. Straightening out those drives, would have saved me a shot on 15 and possibly one on 14. The 161 yard wedge that shot 30 yards over the green was hopefully a fluke though, so I’m not even sure if the drive cost me a shot on that hole or not.
Taking a look at my next practice round, which should be on September 11th, I really want to try and step things up a bit, even with the new clubs going into my bag. So, looking at the bigger picture here, I would like to increase the number of fairways I hit to 10. This gives me a 70% rate on them. I’d love to keep greens where they are at, but move the ball closer to the hole to give myself more of a chance to one putt. If I can continue to hit the greens like this, I shouldn’t need any chipping improvement, so let’s move that goal to putting. If I can drop to 30 putts (1.7 per hole) I should be able to break 70 on the course without much issue. For ne next round then, here are the new set of goals.
GOALS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ROUND
Hit 70% of the fairways –
Hit 80% of the greens –
Hit 32 putts or less –
If I can pull these off, I should come into the clubhouse at around 70. Three putts less and one approach shot should get me there. The new irons should come out very close to one club longer than my FG49’s, so I don’t expect too much difference in play from them. As I dial them in over the first few holes, hopefully they can be as close as I hope they are. Also, given the fact that most of my shots into the greens were 7 iron and under, I can run my target yardages to 75 (60°) and 95 (56°) wedges. From the blue tees, I only had 8 actual irons for approach shots. The rest of the approaches were all wedges. It will be more work on the 1/2 and 3/4 wedges on shorter courses and more work in the 7-9 iron range for the longer ones, but for that September 11th round, I think I can definitely work towards hitting that magical 70 number as long as I hit the ball as well as I did the last time out.
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